This book gives us a glimpse into what Adolph was like before his rise to power. History has only given us a prejudiced view of what really happened. The saying that history is written by the victors has been proven true by what we were taught about both World Wars. The only advice I can give is, reserve any judgment until you have all the facts and don't listen to those who have an agenda.

On 31Dec2011 this anonymous troll Pleonic rants (at the rest of us) about, in essence, bigotry. Does it surprise you that he/she hides in anonymity? What could be more "hateful" than the bigotry of the anonymous coward (a redundant phrase)?

He/she babbles (quote):

"NOTE: This book has the earmarks of a bootleg copy from the original. On the first page you will find a virulent anti-semitic blurb -- possibly by the bootlegger -- notifying us that H. Trevor Roper, the historian who writes the Intro, is a "Jew reporter" who made "ridiculous claims about gas chambers." Please don't let that hateful trash keep you from reading this fascinating book."

Don't worry anonymous pleonic, we won't. And of course, contrary to your adolescent diversions, we did not fall for your brand of "tolerance," let alone your bigoted interpretations of the book in review, and what it actually says; especially in context of the polemic you adolescent brain attempts to promote. For example, this pleonic also babbles (quote):

"If you've ever wanted to get behind the two- dimensional caricature of Hitler's profound evil and find out what made him the way he was ...the author tells everything he can remember of their time together. You can tell that, even knowing the horrific deeds his friend perpetrated against the human race, he still feels affection for the Hitler he knew."

Nice try pleonic. And what are the "horrific deeds his friend perpetrated" that you, in your abject bigotry, promote? Or. more to the point of your cowardice, who was the focus of those alleged deeds? What does Kubizek ACTUALLY SAY (funny how the bigot pleonic glosses over the details); a quote from pages 246/7:

""But there is more — and much more — to be said. What the Jews did and do (and cannot but do) is a consequence of what they are — and of what they remain even when they turn their backs to Jewish tradition (or pretend to do so) and become Christians, Theosophists, Buddhists or just “rationalists,” or Communists. And they are, fundamentally, irreducibly — already in the invisible Realm of which this world of shapes and colours and sounds is but a projection, — the polar opposite of the natural Aryan élite; the dark counterpart of the youngest Children of the Sun. As racially conscious as they, if not — alas! — often more so; as tightly bound as they to one another through the most compelling solidarity; through total solidarity (in practical — financial and political — no less than religious or so-called religious affairs) such as one can, in history, if at all, seldom come across; nay, as devoted as they to a merciless collective purpose. Only theirs is not the legitimate consciousness of true superiority and the bloodsolidarity of Nature’s best ones; nay, it is not the healthy racial pride and patriotism of a real people in their place within the scheme of Life. Nor is their collective purpose by any means, like that of Adolf Hitler’s followers, “in harmony with the original meaning of things.” On the contrary! For the Jews are, in the first place, not a race in the true sense of the ward, — let alone “God’s chosen one.” They are neither an homogeneous variety of Semites nor a brotherhood of kindred Semitic types bearing to one another such a relation as that which binds together Aryans of “Nordic,” “Dinaric” and other types within the German nation. One needs but to look at them, in order to be convinced of this; nay, to look at them in the country where they have been gathering for the last thirty or forty years from all the ghettos of the world in the name of their common past and common nationhood: Palestine. One meets there, apart from the “classical” Jew, Jews of all physical types, including the Slav, including the “Nordic” — rare,, no doubt, yet present and not necessarily marred by the well-known visible signs of Jewish descent. And some of the members of the strange pseudoethnical, pseudo-religious world-community — such as, for instance, the socalled “black Jews” of Cochin, on the Malabar coast, — have no Jewish blood, in fact, no Semitic blood at all in their veins1 which does not prevent them from feeling themselves “Jews.” The Jewish world-community is — has been, more and more, for centuries already — not a Semitic, nation but a raceless brotherhood gathered around a Semitic nucleus; a raceless brotherhood, however, as racially-conscious as any people can be; increasingly numerous cosmopolitan elements who put the usual characteristics of the raceless — faithlessness; unscrupulousness; disregard of order; soul-poisoning scepticism, — to the service of the racial idea that they have partly inherited partly adopted from their full-blooded brothers in faith and brothers in interests, and Semites — a very definite, inferior section of the broad Semitic race — in whom masterfulness in subtlety and intrigue outways by far all warrior-like qualities.

And its collective aim, pursued throughout history with relentless consistency, is nothing less than the prosperity and power of the Jew, everywhere in the world, at the expense of all non-Jews. The consciousness of being (more or less) “children of Abraham” and the common “Law” under which, (nominally at least) its members live, may well keep the community together. Yet they are but means to an end. And the end — the common collective purpose: actual Jewish rule — is what really matters.”

This anonymous pleonic also babbles (quote):

" . . . Kubizek makes it very plain that this was a seriously damaged young man. Hitler's constant rages, his living in a fantasy world . . . lets us see the seed that eventually grew into the author of the 'Final Solution.'"

The "Final Solution"? You mean the Transfer Agreement and the commemorative coin? Or were you, in your abject bigotry, referring to, as Kubizek openly identifies, "jew rule"?

Nice try anonymous pleonic. Now try this:

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/10/08/the-two-austrians-2/

If you've ever wanted to get behind the two- dimensional caricature of Hitler's profound evil and find out what made him the way he was, this is the book you need. Kubizek, the man who wrote it, was Hitler's best and only friend during his formative years between age 15 and 19.

Step by step, with excellent insight and attention to detail, the author tells everything he can remember of their time together. You can tell that, even knowing the horrific deeds his friend perpetrated against the human race, he still feels affection for the Hitler he knew.

Yet in his unsparing descriptions of his friend's unstable personality Kubizek makes it very plain that this was a seriously damaged young man. Hitler's constant rages, his living in a fantasy world, his absolute, desperate belief in his own greatness, his need to remake everything in his image, his implacable hatred of anything that contradicted him -- Kubizek's detailed pictures of all this lets us see the seed that eventually grew into the author of the "Final Solution."

NOTE: This book has the earmarks of a bootleg copy from the original. On the first page you will find a virulent anti-semitic blurb -- possibly by the bootlegger -- notifying us that H. Trevor Roper, the historian who writes the Intro, is a "Jew reporter" who made "ridiculous claims about gas chambers." Please don't let that hateful trash keep you from reading this fascinating book.

This book is simply amazing, i wasnt able to read the original one cause unfortunately i dont understand English, but it is stunning, and moving, here you can learn by a person who actually knew Hitler as his close friend and lived with him daily for years, the book is full with touching scenes and it reveals the real character of Adolf Hitler beyond the fanatical hatred that the establishment sourounds him with.
It is just amazing that this side of Hitler is so well hidden under tones of propaganda, you will see how his only interests were books, architecture ,art and music, how he lived through poverty with the utmost dignity, his artistic views and his attempts even to right an OPERA!
A gentle spirit is what arises from that book, a spirit with a vision that was impeded between artistic and creative thoughts.
And at the end there is a moving scene of Kubitzek meeting his friend after 30 years, and as the Fuhrer of all Germany, in a Bayreuth festival, wagner is the glue that binds those two friends , Wagner and Germany.
And for the end, the above review states that the introduction is idiotic and hate filled!
Critical though cannot be called hatred, instead not being able to separate critical though from hate is indeed idiotic.
Anyway, the book is the greatest and most realistic thing that anyone can have in order to understand the real Hitler, together with the memoirs of persons that really met Hitler for years and were in his inner circle, but that is special cause it is written by a person who was his close friend and with whom Hitler lived daily.

I wish to point out that the original title of the book " Adolf Hitler mein Jugendfreund " is incorrectly translated as " The Young Hitler I knew ". The correct translation should be " Adolf Hitler friend of my youth" .

While I'm not entirely satisfied with either of the two English translations I've read, I'm glad this book has been made available to English speakers.
Apart from offering fantastic insight on the teenage Hitler, it also gives the reader a glimpse into European life at the turn of the century.
The original is much, much better (as goes for every book, I think) but if you can look past the outdated English you'll thoroughly enjoy this book.

****NOTE: Chapter 8 “Begeisterung für Richard Wagner” is missing in this translation, as are the true Foreword and Epilogue written by Kubizek ****

For more info: http://augustkubizek.blogspot.com

I've read this book in the original German countless times and although many things inevitably got lost in translation, this English version is quite ok.

You can skip the introduction (it's idiotic, hate-filled and is not fit to appear at the front of this objective and truthful memoir, in my humble opinion) and go straight to Chapter One, where you will get to know August Kubizek and read about his first encounter with the young Hitler.

This book has a very special place in my heart, as does Kubizek. Enjoy!

P.S. Thank you to whomever uploaded this brilliant work here.